By now, most of you know that Phil wrote a children’s picture book. Wow! I can’t believe he is finally at the point where he is sharing this information! He has been working so hard on this for the last year. I promised I would share the details of how this book was born. To do this, I think I need to start way back about five years ago when I was pregnant with Madden. For the first 16 weeks of my pregnancy, I had been telling Phil we were having a boy. I was certain there was a baby boy in there! Needless to say, we were both pretty shocked when the ultrasound revealed we were having a little girl. Anyone that knows Phil knows that when he does something, he goes all in. So since that day five years ago when he was told in the ultrasound room that he would forever be a girl dad, he has poured his heart and soul into preparing for that role. Before Madden was born, he had three books that really spoke to him on parenting girls from a father’s perspective. The first one, She Calls Me Daddy by Robert Wolgemuth, was passed down from my dad. It was a book that my own father read in preparation for me! How cool is that?! The second book he read was called Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters by Dr. Meg Meeker.  The third book was called Be the Dad She Needs You to Be by Dr. Kevin Leman.  If you are looking for some amazing books for girl dads or girl dads-to-be, he highly recommends these books! He has learned so much from them. His research didn’t just stop at books. He has watched videos, researched statistics, and listened to podcasts in his attempt to learn as much as he possibly could about his impact on our girls’ lives. Remember I said he goes all in??! Obviously, he takes his role as daddy pretty serious! He is very aware of how his role affects our girls forever. It affects their confidence, their feeling of safety, their interaction with boys, their self-worth, and so much more. He knows the importance of telling them (often and out loud) how much he loves them and how he will always be there. He spends his free time investing in these girls and their lives. One of the girls’ favorite things to do with Phil is read books. Over the last five years of reading children’s book after children’s book, Phil has noticed that there aren’t many books that focus on the importance of the father/daughter connection. He really wanted to read a book to our girls that expresses a father’s love and commitment to his daughter. Since he couldn’t find the perfect book on a shelf already, he wrote one! He initially wrote the words on his phone to read to the girls. No pictures, no physical book, just words on a phone that he would recite to them. Madden loved it! She always asked for daddy to read “his book” to her before bed. Before long, she had memorized the phrases and was mouthing them as Phil read the words to her. When Phil realized how much Madden adored hearing these words spoken to her by her dad, he knew he wanted to share this with other dads. Almost a year later, along with lots of learning, edits, and roadblocks, he finally has a physical book to share with you all! I Will Always Protect You is a book that gives dad the exact phrases his daughter wants and needs to hear from her dad. It will tug on your heart for sure. And your daughter will LOVE hearing these words from her daddy (which includes step-dads, father figures, or dads that don’t live in the same home). These words are straight from Phil’s heart and are so personal to him. We are so excited that these same words will be a part of your family too. We hope it opens the door to a strong father/daughter relationship that lasts a lifetime. And don’t worry, this isn’t the last book like this you will see from Philip Mann ;)